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only five minutes of kneading

I really appreciate all of the helpful and positive feedback that we’ve gotten on our first Crepes of Wrath web video. Everyone has been extremely nice and I appreciate all of the love; thank you especially to everyone that’s shared it with friends or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. It makes a huge difference and the response has been so great that I can’t wait to post our next one. Aside from all of the excitement surrounding that, Kramer and I had an excellent holiday weekend. We paid our second visit to Mission Chinese in an effort to completely burn away our stomach lining from spicy food (worth it), then met up with our friend Morgan to watch the premiere of Best Week Ever, which he writes for (spoiler alert: it was hilarious). Saturday, Kramer took a class at NYU while I finally got around to getting a massage with a gift certificate that I got for the holidays. I was hoping I’d get a seriously deep tissue treatment, and man, that is an understatement. My shoulders and neck felt swollen from my rub down, and at certain points I considered telling the guy that the pressure was too much, but now I have no knots in my back, so I suppose this was yet another example of ‘no pain, no gain’. Who says massages should be relaxing, anyway?

That night, we met up with my friend Emily to get dinner at Parish Hall (delicious food and awesome cocktails), followed by drinks at Spritzenhaus in Greenpoint, because who doesn’t need an after-dinner pretzel? We were able to sleep in a bit on Sunday, then I went to Toby’s for coffee, which is now my new favorite coffee spot in Brooklyn, followed by an afternoon of braising and frying, for brisket tacos and homemade jalapeno poppers, respectively. The tacos were fantastic…the poppers, not so much. I may try making them again, but the breading just didn’t seem to stick to the peppers well enough. Maybe I need smaller peppers. Does anyone have a recipe for jalapeno poppers that they love? I want to fry these suckers, not bake them, so don’t give me a ‘healthy version of everyone’s favorite blah blah blah’, please and thank you. We ate with Morgan, Hannah, and Rachel, then headed out to see Mama, which wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it was going to be, but I still covered my eyes and jumped at the appropriate parts. On Monday, our glorious day off, we met up with Joel, Rachel, and a bunch of other people for dim sum at Jing Fong in Chinatown. I have never seen a restaurant as big as this place before; it probably seats well over 500 people, but what do I know? All that really mattered was that the food was tasty and incredibly cheap; we were all stuffed and walked out of there for $16 a person. In an effort to walk off all of the shrimp puffs and sticky rice, we stopped by Pearl River to pick up some sauces, spices, and most importantly, dishware, then sat on the couch for a few hours at home before grabbing a slice and meeting up with our friend Emily to see Colin Quinn do a practice run for his new off-Broadway show. I was surprised that I enjoyed the set as much as I did; I kind of went not expecting much but he was really funny! It helped that the show was about the Constitution and American history, which I am a complete sucker for.

I am also a sucker for bread. Any bread. I don’t care if it’s some nice, crusty artisinal variety (which I like to believe this is, but again, hey, what do I know?) or a roll out of a bag. I love bread, and as I recently explained, I have been trying to get over my fear of baking with yeast and making bread in general. I found this recipe floating around on a few different blogs, and while I couldn’t find its exact origins, I did read that it worked surprisingly well. As I was making it, I was a bit skeptical. The dough was wet and looked more like cream of wheat as I was ‘kneading’ it (a term I use loosely, and once you see the below photos, you will understand why), which made me panic just a bit. I had to keep my cool, though; Kramer, the master bread maker, was sitting in the living room and I wanted to pretend that I was totally comfortable with this wet, runny, not-at-all-coming-together dough. Most bread recipes usually say something like “form the dough into a ball” at some point. This one did not. As I covered it to allow it to rise for two hours, I was very, very nervous. When I saw that after rising, it still seemed sticky, I was even more nervous. However, I carried on with an uncharacteristic optimism, saying to myself, “I’m sure it will be fine,” over and over again. Obviously, I’m really glad that I did, because this ciabatta turned out beautifully. The exterior is nice and crusty, while the inside is fluffy, flavorful, and soft. Kramer and I had a really hard time waiting for it to be cool enough to slice so that we could dip it in olive oil and balsamic. The ciabatta kept well for about a week (I made two loaves and doubled the below recipe), so we were able to enjoy it as toast for breakfast, as lunch for sandwiches, and for dipping alongside soup for dinner. This is an excellent beginner recipe, as there’s not much kneading involved and you just kind of let the dough do its own thing, which is just fine, because trust me, it knows what its doing.

An incredibly large dim sum restaurant that we went to on Monday with our friends, thoughtfully organized by Joel and J.K..

The dough will be very wet and you will be worried. I am here to tell you not to worry, just knead it and slap it around and don’t over-think it!

Pour some olive oil over the top of the dough, then let it rise for 2 hours.

Flour your baking tray, then flour your hands very well. Just place the dough onto the baking sheet and shape it into a loaf-looking thing (honestly – it will look more like a ‘thing’ than bread). Bake at 400 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or so, until lovely and golden.

I highly recommend dipping this ciabatta in some nice olive oil and balsamic.

Perfectly crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside homemade ciabatta bread.

Ingredients

3¼ cups all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¾ teaspoon granulated sugar

1¾ cup + 2 tablespoons warm (115 degrees F) water

2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for the bowl

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Pour in the warm water, and beat for 5 solid minutes, either with a mixer or a wooden spoon. If you have a dough hook, use it and knead the mixture for an additional five minutes, until the dough is well combined, otherwise just keep beating with the wooden spoon.

When the dough is well combined, flour your hands, stick 'em in a bowl, and pull parts of the dough up and slap it back down into the bowl. Do this for another 5 minutes. This will push air bubbles into the dough and create nice holes when it bakes.

Oil a large bowl, then plop the dough into that bowl. Drizzle your olive oil over the top of the dough, then cover the bowl in plastic wrap and cover with at towel. Place the bowl in a warm spot and allow it to rise for 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then sprinkle it with flour. Flour your hands, and shape the dough into a long loaf, about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with a just touch of flour for strictly aesthetic purposes (trust me, it looks pretty), then bake for 35-40 minutes, until the bread is lightly golden. If you tap the bread, you should feel like it's hollow - that's how you know it's ready! Place the bread on a cooling rack and allow it to cool down for a minimum of 20-30 minutes before slicing into it and dipping in olive oil, spreading with butter, or turning into a tasty sandwich.

Anytime I see yeast as an ingredient in a recipe, I run away. I’m scurd. Which is not a good thing for someone who eats bread with every meal. Oh, crusty ciabatta, how I love thee.
You’ve REALLY got me wanting to give this a go. I have a yummy bottle of olive oil and a thick, delicious balsamic yearning to be dunked in by a warm loaf of this.
Great, now I’m drooling and it’s only 8 in the morning.

Looks awesome! I’m making a knock-off Olive Garden Braised Beef dish this Sunday for my boyfriend who’s craving it like nothing else and I’ll definitely give this a try.\

Also, Boston has a similarly huge Dim Sum place! Maybe it’s just how they work it? At that one, they have the non-Chinese people in the upstairs because well, I’m sure they serve things downstairs that probably don’t really appeal to the american palette!

I am happy to hear that you had a good dim sum meal. Chinese restaurants are usually huge, because people like to host wedding banquets and events there.
Back to the ciabatta, yours look perfect. I definitely need to make some soon! I am also a bread sucker. Any bread would make me happy.

It’s very brave of you to start your yeast adventures with ciabatta! Yours looks great — so good, in fact, I’m thinking I’m going to have to make some myself, as it’s been years since I last turned out a loaf of this stuff. BTW, if you’re looking for another easy, high-payoff bread, foccacia would be a great choice! Good luck with the breads and have fun!

I love Best Week Ever and was so glad to see it come back after all this time. I also love bread. I’m glad you are conquering your fear of yeast. This bread looks crusty and soft and like everything bread should be!

[…] exhibition for school going on this week, so I spent the weekend baking loaf after loaf of ciabatta bread, which were then turned into pressed picnic sandwiches. I think we ended up with about 100 salami […]

As a native Texan I can tell you a trick for well-breaded poppers is to flash roast the peppers so the skin blisters and you can peel it off. Once the waxiness of the skin is gone a little egg wash and whatever breading you want (I like tempura) should do just fine.

I’m also super-hesitant with bread. It intimidates me. This seems to be do-able though. May have to give it a try next time we do a burger bar.

I made this bread for the first time today and love it! Hubby likes it too! I was wondering if you have ever made this into sandwich size rolls? It seemed really sticky and I was afraid of deflating the dough, so I didn’t try. I also added the yeast to the water, stirred and let it sit while I was gathering the other ingredients. Then I dumped it in last and started my mixer. I also used the batter attachment for the first 5 minutes, then the dough hook for 5 minutes. I did this to incorporate more air into the dough. It worked great! Thank you for sharing this quick and easy recipe

No. Olive oil is the single most important ingredient in Mediterranean food. If you don’t want to use olive oil, then find a recipe from a different area of the world. But there’s really not much. Unless you’re severely allergic or something, you should just go for it.

This is my first try at cibatta…my dough is on the 2 hour rise right now. THE soupiest, stickiest, batter-like dough I have ever worked with. LOL I would have been worried too, if you hadn’t said to not worry. hahaha. I followed the directions exactly…I hope it turns out with the big air holes in it!

This is the best ciabatta bread I’ve made yet. Thank you! I altered it a bit by adding roughly chopped garlic to the mix and it is fantastic. Crispy top, light and fluffy in the middle with those little sweet garlic surprises in the mix. x

I tried this last night. It tastes OK (Husband says “make it again!”), but it came out very flat – only about 1 – 2″ high. Even post-rise, the dough was very runny. I used bread machine yeast, since that’s what I had on hand. The “slap it around” part sounded like I was popping bubble wrap. Any suggestions on what I should do differently next time?

Hi Karen – from what I understand, bread machine yeast is finer and therefore dissolves quicker. The amount of time I suggest to allow the yeast to foam may have dissolved the yeast rather than activating it…but that is just a guess! Humidity and temperature and elevation all play a factor into how bread turns out, as I’m sure you know. Slapping it around should result in a bubble-wrap sound, so you got that part right! I hope you’ll give it another try and thank you very much for the feedback!

Hi, I am really pleased with this really easy recipe. I tried it yesterday with bread flour (delicious) and today I’m trying with self raising. My family almost ate the whole loaf yesterday! The dough was wet, but I plodded on like you suggested and it worked! Thank you once again. I pour a little olive oil over a slice, fry in non stick pan and add my favorite salad etc with a touch of balsamic reduction (devine). Heather Jeffreys Bay South Africa

Sydney-
I tried with all my heart to follow the recipe line for line and even referenced the great photos as I was kneading but mine was runny too and came out very flat. We even loved it flat…there were nice airy holes inside the loaf but would like it to be like your finished product photo. Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe I was off with some measurement…I know with baking you have to be very precise. I thought about the humidity and temperature as well so I am not giving up. Thoughts…?

Lisa, the same thing has been happening with my dough…..very runny….just glops onto the baking pan. I continue to make it because it tastes REALLY great, and it’s a very simple recipe! At 1 1/2 inches high, it slices into strips that make it perfect for dipping in oil, or hummus, so that’s what I’ve decided to “go for”. Sydney – I’d love some additional input to make it a bit firmer and more loaf like…..The air holes and texture are fabulous!

Tried this bread yesterday but it fell flat. I think the yeast hadn’t proofed properly. Making it again today. i had one question regarding measurements. I have been following the 1 cup recipes as per the literal meaning. As per my understanding 1 cup means 240 ml water and 120 g flour. Though when I measure using the tea cup I have, the measurements it gives me are completely different. This one cup approximately gives me 120 g flour but lesser water than 240 ml. So today I used measurements not through cup but like 3 1/4 g flour means 390 g flour. For water I measured out 420 ml water. Though when I mixed it the consistency was very liquidy. yesterday when I had followed the cup method the consistency looked better and felt it was the right ratio (something similar to your pics). Could you please elaborate a little about which type of cup you use or when you say 1 cup are you actually measuring out like I did. Thanks. Wonderful work with the blog.

Which oven are you using here? I have a general query as in most recipes it is mentioned that heat the oven to some specific temperature. I use a OTG and sometimes get confused as whether I am supposed to use an OTG or oven. As at similar temperatures OTG seems to be more aggressive. I followed certain recipes, and my caked or brownies took lesser time. (Came out very well just that I had to monitor time)
Also there is one other issue that I face. How to decide if to use cup measurements or gram measurements. If recipe mentions grams its fine but if recipe mentions cups it is confusing sometimes. As different cups measure out differently (normal tea cup). Like ideally 1 cup = 120 g flour and 1 cup = 240 ml water. But the cup I have measures out the flour approximately same but measures out much lesser water. What should be done in these cases? I followed this recipe and converted the cups mentioned there into grams and then used it. But the ratio did not work out well.
These are generic questions which troubles me sometime. I am asking you because it looks like your experience can hep me out. Please feel free to take your time to reply.
Thanks,
Priyanka

I use a biga starter when I make Ciabatta, and it comes out perfect. Use 1 1/2 C flour, 1 C water (filtered) and 1/8 tsp yeast. Mix well and let sit on the counter for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours. Remove 1 hour before use. I also add 1 TBS dried milk (non-fat preferably), this gives the bread a wonderful taste and texture. You can substitute honey for the sugar. I would also suggest to be careful with the salt since it immediately kills the yeast, so to prevent this, add the salt at the very last second.

I cannot believe how crispy the outside is and how chewy/soft the inside of this bread is. When I show this to my Mom/Friends, they’re gonna be like “you didn’t make this.” LOL Thanks for this receipe!!

Great recipe. I would recommend everyone try making this. However, bloom your yeast first and then let it rise in an oven (off) with a saucepan of boiling water alongside it. This will create a warm, moist environment perfect for rising. Mine quintupled in size (oil plastic wrap to ease covering removal)! Once you place in the pan to bake, it will deflate quite a bit, but render an incredibly spongy, delicious, mouth-watering good bread.

I made this tonight and it tasted and turned out great. My problem was that the parchment paper, even being floured, baked onto the bread. We had to slice the bottom crust off. I rarely use parchment so maybe it was old.

Has anyone made this using gluten free flour. I have made it many times, and my family/ friends love it! I am visiting my brother, and both nieces are gluten intolerant. I have the red mill brand of gluten free flour, can I sub it for reg flour or do I have to make any adjustments with the recipe? Thanks so much for posting this, best ciabatta I have had!

Hi, we love this bread and now making it for the 3rd time in a month. Just a quick one can u use the dough as a good pizza base?
BTW added olives and garlic to the last loaf before baking it, loaf did not make it to the table got hi-jacked in the kitchen….
Great bread

This recipe is a serious contender to overtake the No Knead Bread as our go-to bread recipe. I love the yeastiness it adds and the texture is much nicer than we’re getting out of the no knead stuff. We’re serving it tonight with a braised lamb shanks recipe that will be a Once and Future Foodie (www.artoriusrex.com) blog post soon.

I made this yesterday for the first time and it was really great. I used instant yeast and my Kitchenaid stand mixer. I made the loaf on a Silpat then cut it into 6 rolls and separated them using a silicone bowl scraper. I shaped them a little and baked for the full time. My kids and I loved them with dinner – they had a lovely crust and the inside was perfect. I went out and left the bowl to rise for a little over 4 hours. It looked like a big bowl of porridge when I came back but it was nice and elastic and baked up beautifully. Thanks for a great recipe!

[…] all. I’ve seen this recipe over and over again on various blogs and websites, but I really do enjoy kneading bread every now and then, but this bread was made for a party in which I had already […]

My dough was incredibly runny- much closer to pancake batter. After working it for a LONG time and adding some extra flour, I managed to get it into a somewhat stretchable dough. After letting it rise for 2 hours, it was still extremely sticky and was very difficult to shape into a “loaf’- I ended up with a n 8×4 mess that was about an inch high. While it did rise in the oven, it came out with tiny air bubbles. I’m not sure what went wrong- do you have any advice?

Hi Haley – I’m sorry that this happened! Weather has a lot to do with bread recipes sometimes – if it’s humid or rainy, there may be a lot more moisture in the air so you may want to add extra flour if the dough is too runny. This is a really forgiving recipe so if you add an extra 1/2 cup (or probably even a full 1 cup) of flour, you’ll still be fine. I hope that helps!

I love ciabatta bread and was so looking forward to making this recipe for the first time. BUT I have never seen such a goopy mess in all my born days. I did add more flour and hope to goodness it turns out ok. I put parchment paper in a French bread pan, you know those curved things, because the dough would have run all over the flat baking pan. Are you sure 1 and 3/4 cups of water plus 2 Tblsps is not too much???
Am waiting with bated breath and excitement to see what comes out of the oven!!! I will let you know……

This recipe is not quite as easy as you’ve made it sound, in my experience. The dough is SO sticky that it literally clings for life to anything it touches. Hands, surfaces, whatever. It was so impossible to work with that I abandoned the project midway out of frustration. What did you do differently to avoid this problem?

Yes the dough is rather soft and sticky. But don’t let that get in the way. I let the dough rise in my oven on 100 degrees (bread proofing) for the 2 hours then followed the directions for preparation to bake. At first the BLOB looked rather flat but as it cooked it did rise to a good flat oval suitable for small sandwiches. Next time I am going to make them into small square rolls for individual sandwiches..

Made this recipe today and it worked a treat. I used a trick from another recipe and put olive oil on my hands rather than flour when I was beating it up. My other half used flour. I have to say the oil worked and saved me from some goopy hands.

Just made this today and it is not only very easy but extremely good as well. I recommend brushing the top with olive oil and a little salt since the bread is somewhat bland in flavor. The texture and taste are great otherwise.

Hi Marie – I don’t work with bread machine yeast that often, but I believe it’s made so that it can be added directly to dry ingredients. I’m not sure how that would affect the final result, unfortunately.

Oh my! How delicious and relatively easy to make (I’ve made lots of No Knead Bread). The crumb was not as open as more involved ciabatta recipe but we like it that way. I made a dip of EVO + Balsamic + mixed herbs, cut the bread while still warm, and my wife & I ate half the loaf with cocktails before dinner! Can’t wait to try it again for company.

[…] Easy Homemade Ciabatta Bread is hands-down my favorite bread recipe. As this is a yeast bread, you still need a couple of hours’ rising time, but as most yeast bread recipes require either multiple risings or an overnight rot, this is still the simplest bread recipe I know. It makes a great side for any soup, and we learned almost accidentally once that the leftover bread makes fantastic French toast. As we live in the wet northwest, I reduce the water quite a bit — down to just 1 1/4 cups of warm water. […]

[…] Kale and Chickpea Soup is a warm, comforting dish perfect for chilly weather. Kale is a cool-weather veggie that is easy to grow and is at its prime in the fall and in early spring. We actually make this recipe as written. The only change we ever make is to vary the kind of sausage we use. It calls for pork chorizo, but you can use any kind of sausage you like. We have learned that you want something with a bit of spice in it. Much of the flavor of the soup seems to come from the sausage. In this way, you can also mitigate how spicy the resulting soup is. The spicier the sausage, the spicier the soup. Use a sausage you enjoy eating on its own. You wouldn’t need to serve this with anything as it’s pretty much a one pot meal, but as we like our bread, we usually do serve it with a loaf of Easy Homemade Ciabatta. […]

Thanks for this super easy recipe! It’s my first yeast bread
Made this a couple weeks ago for a party and it was a huge hit, but the crust looked a little light, so I’m trying again. Any tips to get it golden and crispy?

My sister in law makes this recipe in Texas all of the time and came to visit us in Northern California and tried it twice and the bread rose but when we baked it it flattened out. Do you have any idea what could be happening. I just tried it again and had the same results.

Made this recipe as another recipe wasn’t quite what I was looking for. This bread didn’t rise from what I expected, but the flavor and crustiness of the ciabatta was awesome. So I’ll be using this recipe more often. I will let the yeast and water rise in advance next time so I can make a sandwich with it. And if it doesn’t rise to what I would expect I’ll eat it anyways. I’ll also try mixing in some ground whole wheat with bread flour to see if I can be a little more ” wholesome” minded. Good recipe.

Made this recipe several times using a mixer and the results were not as shown, though the bread tasted great. However the last loaf I made was pretty close to size and texture. What I did was hand mix and ‘slap around’ the dough before letting it rise. As an addition or change, I also did a 50-50 mix of bread flour and hard white wheat flour and it came out great though I really didn’t have large air holes in it, but that’s okay because it tasted great. It will be a standard recipe in this household from now on whether your true recipe or my mixture. I did try other recipes, but yours was the quickest and tastiest.